Beneath Their Skins
by ninemuses
Summary: Vivian and Gabriel, in 50 themes.


**Author's Notes:** This was written for the 1sentence community on Livejournal where you write one, and only one, sentence for each of 50 themes. In my case, this led to much abuse of semicolons, colons, commas, parenthetical comments & dashes.

**Disclaimer:** They belong to Annette Curtis Klause, not me.

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#01 - Ring  
_Loup-garoux_ exchange no gifts swearing fidelity, but when they curled together in the moonlight, Gabriel ran his fingertip around the base of the third finger on her left hand.

#02 - Hero  
Vivian never thought of herself as a princess in need of rescue (she had her own claws and fangs with which to protect herself after all) but Gabriel insisted on playing her dark knight anyway.

#03 - Memory  
When Vivian first met Gabriel, he'd stood by her father, dirty, underfed, and looking very much like a much-abused stray.

#04 - Box  
Their love was too complicated, tangled, and edged to ever be contained so easily.

#05 - Run  
When they arrived in Vermont, she asked him to come outside and claim their new home: "I will never be your bunny, wolfman, but I like you anyway."

#06 - Hurricane  
Those first months after her father's death, before Gabriel became Alpha, Vivian felt like a piece of driftwood tossed around by unforgiving waves.

#07 - Wings  
Sometimes when Gabriel touches Vivian, her heart beats so fast she fears it will burst from her breast and take flight.

#08 - Cold  
On those rare nights Gabriel left her side, Vivian missed the throbbing heat of his body.

#09 - Red  
He once told her he wanted to lay his kill at her feet, and damned if he didn't follow through, his muzzle gleaming, slick, and crimson with the stag's cooling blood.

#10 - Drink  
Gabriel offered her the water bottle and watched as she drank greedily from it, cool liquid slipping from the corners of her mouth to slide down the curve of her neck.

#11 - Midnight  
Humans called midnight the witching hour; Vivian knew better -- for them it was their time to howl a duet to the moon.

#12 - Temptation  
Stay away from her, they told Gabriel when he arrived -- she's just a child, she's the Alpha's daughter, and besides she only wagged her tail for the Five.

#13 - View  
Vivian thought herself ugly when she was neither woman nor wolf but rather a monster in between; Gabriel taught her love is blind.

#14 - Music  
Gabriel laughed at her complete and utter lack of musical knowledge and took it upon himself to enlighten her; after two weeks, he threw his hands up in despair and dropped the matter.

#15 - Silk  
Every time Gabriel touches Vivian's soft skin, a small piece of him shatters and waits to be made whole again by her kiss.

#16 - Cover  
When they lie naked under the stars, grass for their pillow, trees for their canopy, Gabriel uses her long hair as a blanket.

#17 - Promise  
Officially, Gabriel bought the land for them to run and hunt away from ever-watchful human eyes, but in truth he did it to ease her broken heart.

#18 - Dream  
Though she would never admit it, his face was all she saw when she closed her eyes at night.

#19 - Candle  
Esme was experienced and Astrid was aggressive, but neither of them could hold a candle to Vivian.

#20 - Talent  
Gabriel had a knack for attracting women like bees to honey; Vivian had an even better skill: scaring them off with her deadly glare.

#21 - Silence  
Sometimes words are unnecessary: the brush of his hand over her golden hair, the touch of her lips on his forehead, the pressure of his teeth on the back of her neck -- these are enough.

#22 - Journey  
Vivian hated moving -- she'd despised coming to Maryland even though it had been for the sake of protecting their broken pack -- but she found herself looking forward to Vermont more and more with each passing day.

#23 - Fire  
Vivian lost everything she knew to flame; she regained a piece of it when she ran with Gabriel that first night underneath the stars.

#24 - Strength  
Vivian admired his commanding presence, but she loved his vulnerability best of all.

#25 - Mask  
The human is not a disguise and the wolf is not an illusion; whatever they truly were, Gabriel loved Vivian in both her skins.

#26 - Ice  
The first time Vivian really, _truly_, noticed Gabriel was during that summer after they moved to Maryland--the day was sweltering, and she'd been sucking on an ice cube, running the rapidly melting piece back and forth across her lips; when she'd realized he was staring at her, she'd ducked and run, her cheeks so hot she'd need an entire tray to cool them off.

#27 - Fall  
Gabriel loves to ride his motorcycle fast; when Vivian's behind him, he goes slower, but sometimes he speeds up so that she'd tighten her arms around him.

#28 - Forgotten  
Some things are never forgotten: the beloved dancer he'd killed, the adored meat boy whose life she'd destroyed.

#29 - Dance  
His arm cradled her back like _that_ and her leg curled around his hip _just so_ -- this is the only choreography they needed or ever wanted.

#30 - Body  
Though his flesh was torn and battered, Gabriel lived and his opponent did not, for Vivian tolerated no harm to her mate.

#31 - Sacred  
Gabriel doesn't follow any organized religion -- he is a _wolf,_ after all -- but for him, there is nothing worthier of worship than Vivian's body.

#32 - Farewells  
Had she the chance to do it over again, Vivian would try to reason with Aiden, find a different way to say goodbye, but she'd made her choice when she'd taken the bullet for Gabriel.

#33 - World  
Had they been born in a different time, Gabriel would have given his Princess Wolf the world; instead he can only offer himself and hope that it is enough.

#34 - Formal  
The gown was lush, expensive, and hugged her curves like it was made for her (it wasn't; it once belonged to her mother); Gabriel tore it off her body in five seconds flat.

#35 - Fever  
Sometimes Vivian wondered if this unbearable heat, this dizziness that afflicted her when Gabriel touched her would ever cease.

#36 - Laugh  
He loved her fierce laugh, strong and fearless, like everything else about her.

#37 - Lies  
Every year, in July, Vivian thinks about Aiden and wonders where he is now, if he jumps at his own shadow and sees monsters around every corner, or if he even thinks of her at all; and though she never talks about it and tries to keep it a secret, Gabriel knows.

#38 - Forever  
Gabriel knows that it is a myth and that another female could always challenge Vivian for the title of Queen Bitch, he truly believes that wolves mate for life.

#39 - Overwhelmed  
Vivian lost all words the instant Aunt Persia placed the wailing infant in her arms, but she found them again when she met Gabriel's eyes over their newborn son: "See, I didn't need your help at all!"

#40 - Whisper  
His fur whispers across her bare human skin and she laughs because it tickles.

#41 - Wait  
Gabriel waited for Vivian to grow a little older, guarded the cave in which she hid from him (a fact he reminds her of to this day), and fought for her acceptance; when she finally followed him out her bedroom window, he thanked the Hunter God profusely because even his patience has its limits.

#42 - Talk  
Gabriel believes actions speak louder than words, and in that, Vivian has never failed him.

#43 - Search  
After he killed his human lover, Gabriel fled from man and wolf alike, shunning all but himself and his tortured mind--and would have continued that bleak existence without repent if he hadn't met a certain Alpha and his beautiful, golden-haired daughter.

#44 - Hope  
Once she feared duty, the memory of her father and her failure to prevent his death--now Vivian believes together she and Gabriel can make the pack better, smarter, _stronger_.

#45 - Eclipse  
Changing during a lunar eclipse never felt quite the same; even Gabriel, who Vivian thought of as solid and unflappable, was perturbed.

#46 - Gravity  
Gabriel is a force of nature that none can deny, and try as hard as she might, Vivian found herself pulled into his orbit anyway.

#47 - Highway  
When Vivian rides on the back of Gabriel's bike, she likes to spread her arms and pretend she's a falcon swooping down to strike her prey.

#48 - Unknown  
Wolves live day to day, because the future is never absolute or predictable, but Vivian tried to plan for the future and all its eventual possibilities anyway.

#49 - Lock  
Hear me, my knight, I offer you the key to my heart; do you dare to unlock it?

#50 - Breathe  
Her face stopped his heart and stole his breath; his face short-circuited her brain and set the wolf in her free.

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Completed: 4.27.06 


End file.
